Spray-cooling tower



Oct. 28, 19301 c. R. KRANZ 1,7 80,020

SPRAY COOLING TOWER v 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 15, 1927 Oct. 28,1930. c. R. KRANZ 1,780,020

SPRAY COOLING TOWER Filed Jan. 15, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 C hr 71 (PM;

Patented Oct. 28, 1930 i jS TA' ES OF ICE l m gma t;irisANa oFI-GENEILLY ILLINOIS, Assrenomny'mnsNn ASSIGNMENTS,'10'BINKSMANUFAGTURING"COMPANY, oroHIoAeo, ILLHINOIS,'AY CORPORATION vorDELAWARE p I SPBAY=OOOLING Towns l r i n filed'lanu'ar'y 15 1927 serialNo. 1 1,300.

Myin'vention 3 relates to means a for cooling water byexposu're tocooler air, and aims to provide a cooling tower for this purpose whichwill be usuallyconipact andlight in proportion to its capacity; whichwill involve relatively small expense for-the packing, shippinganderecting, ,andwhich FWlll be durable. t

Heretofore, the hot water,iissuingfroni steam power units of thecondensing typeor from water cooled transformers, refrigerating units,uevaporators and the like-has commonly been vcooled either by "the spraypond system, orby. means of cooling towers A in which the. watertrickles successively over louvres and also over baffles or gr1ds.f Thespray pond system, 1n which the hot water is ejected in the form of aspray fromalarge number of upwardly directed spray nozzles disposedabove a water catching pool requires a large area, such as not availableat most industrial plants where-such water cooling is required; i

The usual less ground space and hence lendsitself to installation onroofs, but introduces two other objections, one being the weight of suchtowers which limits their use to unusually A stronger specially bracedroots. The other comparisonwiththe spraypond system, since the water inthe customary coolingJtowers objection lies in the rather low efficiencyin flows in sheets over the" louvres and other intercepters andsuccessively from one of these to another, thereby presenting a quitesmall surface of'water to the a r in proportion to the amount of water;I Moreover, the pres:

sure or any baffles or gridsiwithin' such a cooling tower retardsv the;movement of air and further reduces the efiicien'cy of sucha toweray cMy present ini 'ention provides anarrangement which eli'ectivelycombines desirable features of both ofthe olde r types ofcoolin'gsystems by subjecting allot the water. to interiningling andsubstantially unrestrictedair; currents while-the water is in the formol 'a finely divided spray, and by alsofinely dividing the drip from oneinterce'pter' to another so .astoi present relativelyflar'ge coolingtowersystem requires bolts "11.

the sprayed water is subjected .to the cooling A air duringa relativelylong 7 i action of the travel. v r

Further and :more detailed objects will appear from the ,followingspecification 1 and from the accompanying drawingsfln' which-- -,Fig. 1is a central land" Yer'tic'al section through a square spray-coolingtower einbodyin g my invention and employing louvres of wood, thesection, being taken parallel to one of its sides. 7

is .a horizbntalsection taken along, the'l1ne2'2'o f l 1, lookingupward.

Fig.1?) isa fragmentary perspective view oi":

louvre-supportingstrips fastened to this post. 4 i a i the top end of acorner post and of the I the'embodiinent o'i my spral'ycooling" towerincludes; louvre sides spanning the spaces between fourcorner posts,alwater collectlng pan supported by the, posts I below the saidlouvresides, and means for projecting the hot water in the form of a spraydownwardly and outwardly against the upper portions of the louvre sides.p

c Eachlouvre side consists of two flat end strips 1 spanned by aplurality of parallel and vertically spaced flatlouvre slats 2, whichslats havetheir'fends mortised into grooves 10' in the end strlpsl Thusconstructed, each louvr'e'side forms a Ilg'lCl unit which can readily beattached totheadjacent cornerposts 3 byifastening the end stripsrespectively to, these posts, as for example by Each louvre strip slopesdownward inwardly of the tower at aconsic'lorable "angle, and preferablyat more than 45 de-- 'g-rees from the horizontal axis of the tower, I

and the width of each louvre is such in pro} portion to the spacing ofthe louvres that the outer edge of eachone extends considerably abovethe bottom of the next higher louvre; The water collecting panThas" itsopposed "pairs sides l spaced by' distance at least equal to thedistances between the inner edges of the slats of the two correspondinglouvre sides and has a bottom 5 which desirably slopes toward one cornerof the bottom, from which corner a drain pipe 6 affords an outlet forthe collected water.

The hot water is fed into the tower under pressure through a supply pipe7 connected to spray nozzles 8 disposed at the'top of the tower, and inthe case of a square tower these nozzles are preferably disposed as acluster. Each spray nozzle is preferably of a type which will projectthe water in the form of a conical full mass sprayas for example thespray nozzle shown in the Binks Patent No. 1,282,175 of October 22,1918, the construction of which nozzle also imparts a whirling movementto the spray issuing from it. y

The axis of each spray nozzle is inclined downwardly and directed towardone or more of the louvre sides, and preferably at such a downward anglethat most of the bound into the interior of the tower.

spray directly striking the louvres will re- Thus, in the illustratedembodiment, the louvre slats have their u per faces at angles of aboutdegrees rom the horizontal, the spgay nozzle axes are disposed at anglesof a ut 45 degreesfrom the horizontal, and the nozzles are designedso'that the spray spreads through a dispersion angle of about 80degrees. Consequently, the spray from a nozzle 8A which has its axis ina plane at right angles to the general plane of the righthand side ofFig. 1 will have its upper edge sloping slightly downward against thetop of the louvre slat 2A while its lower edge slopes downward at a muchgreater. angle to the vertical and will strike a much lower slat 2B.With such angles and with the louvre slats suitably spaced, most of thedirect spray striking the slats will be reflected back into theinteriorof the tower, though some spray will also rebound against thelower faces of other slats and will drop'froni these latter slats to theslats directly below them.

Consequently, with fine mass sprays delivered by the nozzles, the entireinterior of the tower s promptly filled witha mistlike mass of finespray in which currents areset up by the spray rebounding from theseveral louvre sides and by the interaction of the several whirlingsprays on each other. The generally downward movement of the spray, dueto the downward direction of the nozzles, continually draws air downwardthrough the open top of the tower and also through the spaces betweenthe slats, so that the fine spray descending and whirling about in thetower is subjected to the coolingaction of a large amount of air beforeit reaches the collecting pan. Moreover, since the interior of the toweris not obstructed by baflles, grids or the like and since the fine sprayis of low specific gravity, this spray is kept in suspension and incontacting relation to air currents for a relatively long time before itreaches the collecting pan. The spray caught by the slats combines intowater drops, and which trickles gradually down along the inner edges ofthe slats from one louvre to the next lower one, successively encountersthe currents of air drawn into the tower between the louvres. Hence thiswater is also subjected to the cooling effect of a large amount of air,since this trickling water initially reaches the louvres in the form ofspray, it descends in thin films andhence presents a relatively largesurface to the cooling action of the air.

To enhance the cooling action, I preferably proportion the tower anddispose the nozzles so t at a considerable proportion-as for exampleone-half ot' the louvresides will be below the range of the projectedspray. This proportion may be varied somewhat, but preferably is notover two-thirds, so that spray is directed againstat least the upperthird of each side. I also desirably make each louvre slat of such awidthin proportion to its inclination and of such a spacing from thenext higher slat that the outer edge of each louvre slat will extendabove the bottom of the next higher slat. By doing this, I cause anyprevailing wind from one side of the tower to produce aircurrents whichwill deflect the spray downwardly without blowing it out of the tower atthe other side, thus leaving mytower highly eflicient regardless of theexisting winds. I

In practice, my tower can easily be built of such a height that thedirect distance traversed by the spray in passing from the nozzle to thecollecting pan is at least equal to that traversed by the spray fromnozzles over an eflicient type of spray cooling pond; and, owing to theair currents within the tower, the actual traversed distance isconsiderably increased, so that I can secure a prolonged contact of airwith'the finely divided s )ray. Moreover, by using diverging nozzlesdelivering correspondingly diverging cones of spray, I secure a largewater cooling capacity in proportion to the floor space (or roof space)occupied by the tower. In using such spray-cooling towers, the angle ofdivergence of the spra can be increased or decreased by correspondinglyvarying the pressure at which the water is pumped into the supply pipe,so that the cooling capacity of a given tower can be varied considerablyaccording to the temperature of the water and of the air.

Withthe louvres and the collecting pan constructed of wood, as'shown inFigs. 1 and 3, I desirably use such a wood as cypress. Each louvre sidecan be constructed and erected as a unit, and the tower sides can bepacked on each other for compact and com- I paratively inexpensivecarting and shipping.

For the same cooling capacity, my spray V tower is smaller and muchlighter than a drip-cooling tower of the type heretofore employed; henceit is cheaper to construct and to erect, and such a light weight spraycooling tower also canbe used onroofs which j would not support theweight of a drip-cooling tower of the same capacity.

However, while I have illustrated and described my spray cooling towerin a form I which has shown good results, I do not wish to be limited tothe construction and arrangement thus disclosed, since many changesmight be made without departing; either from the spirit of my inventionor from the appended claims. For example, the number and size of thenozzles,the number of sides 20 of the tower and their width inproportion to 1 their heightca-n be varied according to the requiredwater cooling capacity. In the illustrated embodiment, I have securedgood results with the spray nozzles about twelve feet above the watercollecting pan and with a pressure of from ten to fifteen pounds at thenozzles, but these figures may also be varied. Moreover, I do not wishto be limited to the use of my tower for cooling water,

30, as it obviously might be employedalso for cooling other liquids.

- I claim as my invention:

1. A liquid cooling towercomprising side walls having inwardly anddownwardly. inclined louvres, the space within said tower defined bysaid walls being unobstructed, and I outwardly directed discharge meansat-the upper end of the tower for spraying the liquid to be cooled in adownward and outward di- 40 rection directly against the upper faces ofthe louvres. I r u 2. Aliquidcooling tower comprising side walls havinginwardly and downwardly inclined louvres, and a set of downwardly dinvergent nozzles at the upper portion of the tower. for sprayingtheliquidto be cooled' downwardly and outwardly againstthe upper sides ofthe louvres.

Signed at Chicagoflllinois, January 12th,

u CHESTER R. KRANZ.

